Placentia-Linda Hospital leader to step down after 38 years

Rejected from veterinary school in the early 1970s, Pat Swaller took a temporary job at Placentia-Linda Hospital, filling in for a nurse who was on vacation. She didn't envision herself staying for too long.

"I knew I liked it here," said Swaller "I just liked the way they took care of their patients. I felt very comfortable."

Thirty-eight years later – after serving as a staff nurse, nurse supervisor, director of nursing and, most recently, chief operating officer – Swaller will work her last day on May 3.

"I really feel I have my health, and I'm a high energy person," said Swaller, 68, who started at the hospital in 1974, two years after it opened. "I want to reinvent myself to be honest with you."

She plans on devoting her part of her retirement to volunteering at a horse rescue center, returning to her passion for animals after deciding not to reapply to veterinary school after receiving a letter of rejection from Davidson.

She will also help a friend with house staging and planning, another interest that she hadn't been able to devote much time to while working full-time at the hospital and raising a son.

"It's totally different from medicine," said Swaller, who eanred a bachelors degree in nursing at Cal State Fullerton before completing her masters at Laverne University.

In recent years, serving as COO, Swaller would leave her Palm Desert home, where she currently lives, and drive 100 miles to Placentia in time to start her rounds at 6:15 a.m. There, she checked in on the nurses and other hospital staff members who worked overnight.

Then she would hold another meeting at 8:30 a.m., checking in with representatives from each department in the hospital to determine the hospital's scheduled events, meetings and where some units might be able to improve.

LASTING LEGACY

During her time at the hospital, Swaller also established a family atmosphere by doing something extra for patients, including trying to secure a job at the hospital for the daughter of a man who came in for surgery.

"A lot of that is public relations and making sure when people come here, they would want to come back," she said. "My goal is to have patients have a good experience."

The hospital has also given Christmas presents to families of patients, with gifts varying based on what each family could use the most.

"There was a family where the husband lost his job and they needed someone to pick up the electric bill for the next six months," she said.

Swaller has also established a family-atmosphere among the hospital staff, initiating "Friday Funday," during which employees might get a candy bar, doughnut or other treat.

"Another facility had one day a month where they had a fun day for their employees," she said, "so I started 'Friday Funday probably 18 years ago."

Her idea was to engage all departments in the hospital, even those that typically wouldn't socialize with the rest of the staff. After holding the event every week, Swaller thought about scaling it down to maybe once a month, in case employees weren't as enthusiastic about the idea as she was.

"People went and complained, they said 'We want to do this every week,'" she said. "I wanted buy in and I definitely got it."

Swaller might be best remembered by her colleagues for fostering that type of environment.

"Pat has been a strong leader at Placentia-Linda Hospital and will be sorely missed," said Kent Clayton, the hospital's CEO, in a statement. "Her commitment to providing strategic leadership, exceptional care for patients and her strong collaborative relationship with physicians and staff as well as patients and the community in general, has made her an invaluable member of our administrative team."

Swaller has seen a lot of advances in medical technology over the course of her career. Patients used to have to remain in the hospital for at least a few days, sometimes as long as a few weeks, following surgery before outpatient surgery became available, allowing some patients to go home immediately after their procedures. CT scans in radiology used to take 24 minutes each, but today are completed in seconds.

She also leaves as the hospital prepares to expand the number of rooms available for emergency room visits from 10 to 20, the culmination of a three-year project.

THE FUTURE

After announcing her retirement, hospital executives have asked Swaller if she would be interested in continuing to work for the company on a contract basis, which would involve possibly one or two days of work per week.

"I'll see what they want me to do," she said. "Maybe I can help one of our sister hospitals.